Saturday, January 7, 2012

Blog Post 3: Describe where simulations or games might be appropriate to use to enhance learning in your lesson.

Games and simulations are activities that help enhance learner understanding of what they have just gone over. I like to include such things in my lessons because I can tell where each and every student stands before going further into the content.

In my storyboard, after several explanations, I go back and have my students work individually on what I just covered. After explaining the second law of motion and show a video, I ask the students to solve a problem. I help them by guiding them along and by posing the questions that they need to consider before going further into the problem. For example, what is it asking for, etc. I make it into a game. Using this at that time reinforces students understanding of what they just learned,

The very last game that I have at the end of the storyboard includes a group game that brings all elements, visual and text into the outside world. Yes it is very easy to see something on a computer screen, but to actually see it and feel it for your own, bring out this understanding that never occurred to them. By actually demonstrating for themselves that actual process of the second law of motion, bring the content to a whole new level.

Games and graphics can really be fun when used at the appropriate time. You cannot just bring a game in that has nothing to do with at lesson. I t ha to have purpose and has to be timed right. It must be directly related to content and nothing else.

Blog Post 2: Evaluate how you applied research-based guidelines to your lesson and how these guidelines enhance learning.

I used research based guidelines by really looking into what I wanted to convey in my lesson as well as what would be appealing to my audience without being overly graphic in my content.

I know that students now a days are visual learners. With information readily available to them at all times, you have to be able to bring that ooh and ahh that those gadgets bring into the classroom. At the same time, you have to be careful not to completely distract them as well.

The media and content that I choose ranges from audio clips to pictures. Many of the principles covered during the course of the class helped understand how graphics and text combine to make a lesson better without making the audience feel overwhelmed or stupified by the end of the lesson. By looking into the concepts a bit further, I was able to create a lesson that was eye catching and very informative as well.

In all, I believe that I was able to cover all principles by simply looking into each concept and understanding how e-learning really works.

Blog Post 1: Explain the e-learning principles your lesson includes and how they promote critical thinking skills.

The e-learning principles that I included in my lessons were demonstration ranged from one on one learning to group work. I presented a leson that was visually appealing without over doing the graphics. Visualization of topics allows students to be able to draw on thing that they may already be familiar with. Many of the students that walk into my classroom need visual support in order to piece certain aspect of lessons together.

Other principles that I used in my lesson, like collabortation between students. allows students to really think outside of the box. The activities that I have on my storyboard encourage discussion. The topic is simply not just follwing steps, but talking about how to arrive to the comculison that they make.

In the final slides, the group assignment asks students to collect and evelope from the teacher and to get to work on what is inside, But it is not that easy. When the students open the evelope, there are riddles about the topic that they must figure out in order to find the question and then solve the problem. Each riddle will be something that pertains to the second law of motion. And to make sure that groups dont just follw other groups, each envelope will contain a different set of riddles. What the students will eventually figure out that each object that they come across displays that very law being demonstrated in one form or another. This promotes the critical thinking skills that are required not only for the lesson, but for my content area.